When Columbus Police Commander Curtis Marcum retired last year, he received a check for nearly $250,000, Consumer 10’s Kurt Ludlow reported on Monday.
Most of the payout was for unused vacation and sick time Marcum had accumulated during his 42-year career.
According to documents obtained by 10TV News, Columbus paid $7.9 million to officers and firefighters in 2011 for their unused time off.
Columbus Finance Director Paul Rakosky said that the number reflected a large number of retirements due to the State Deferred Retirement Program.
Rakosky said that the city has budgeted just over $2 million for unused vacation and sick time payments in 2012.
Documents showed that Marcum got the biggest retirement payout in 2011 and was one of 13 police officers and six firefighters who received six-figures when they retired, Ludlow reported.
“We’re not looking to get rich off the job that we do,” Fraternal Order of Police President Jim Gilbert said.
Gilbert said that the union contract with the city allows police officers to bank unused sick, vacation and compensatory time off. Under a formula, when officers retire, they are paid various amounts for the sick leave they did not use.
Gilbert said that this practice saves taxpayers money.
“It benefits the officers, it benefits the city, because when somebody calls in sick, potentially overtime’s going to be used to fill that shift,” Gilbert said.
Officers are allowed to bank up to 756 hours – or three months – worth of vacation time, Ludlow reported.
Issue 2, otherwise known as Senate Bill 5, would have ended collective bargaining and given local governments control in terms of contracts for public workers.
Gilbert said that police officers and firefighters are not ordinary workers.
“Please know that we’re out there performing a job function that is not comparable to anything in the private sector,” Gilbert said.
The city signed off on all the contractual agreements, including the payout policy.
“What’s been negotiated between us and the city, the city has signed off on,” Gilbert said.
The city currently is negotiating with the police union for its next contract.
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